How team orders could make Hyundai's historic Acropolis Rally a Greek tragedy

Sport has a strange habit of conjuring up unthinkable results when you least expect them. This year’s Acropolis Rally fell into that category as Hyundai – the team that has struggled the most with reliability this year – conquered one of the World Rally Championship’s most brutal tests by scoring a history-making podium lockout.

Hyundai’s fragile i20 N created headlines for all the wrong reasons in the first half of the season as the South Korean marque, which was late to commit to the WRC’s hybrid Rally1 regulations, found itself on the backfoot. A severe lack of development was highlighted at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, where Thierry Neuville’s sixth place, almost eight minutes adrift of the pace, was the best it could deliver. The list of problems to fix was lengthy but one by one Hyundai has addressed them. Even so, nobody could have predicted the culmination of its recovery to be as emphatic as Neuville leading home Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo to sweep the Greek podium.

Its de facto leader Julien Moncet perhaps summed it best: "Nobody was putting even a single euro on us at the start of the season and now we are a regular competitor [for wins]. At the start we were not organised, we were not quick and we had reliability issue after reliability issue. For sure, we were not the favourite and not even challengers in Monte Carlo.”

The 2022 Acropolis Rally is now the manufacturer’s best WRC result. It also marked the first time the team has won three consecutive rallies, following on from Tanak’s success in Finland and Belgium, while matching its highest tally of wins in a single season. While the result was an undeniable success, a decision to deploy team orders made the result bittersweet for one Hyundai driver.

There were suggestions that the famous Acropolis has become a more sanitised version of the brute that terrorised drivers in the past. After an extended three days of recce talk of much smoother stages rumbled around the service park. This theory was well and truly busted come the end of the 303km, 16-stage epic.

As the WRC celebrates its 50th season this year it was perhaps poignant that organisers of one of the championships founding events reintroduced an old favourite – its side-by-side Athens Olympic Stadium superspecial. The legendary status of this event has cultivated a strong rally following and they voted with their feet as 64,500 crammed into the stadium to watch Neuville defeat Toyota’s Elfyn Evans to win the curtain raiser by 0.1 seconds from Hyundai WRC2 driver and former WRC pilot Teemu Suninen.

The Acropolis Rally commenced in the Olympic stadium in front of 64,500 fans

Photo by: Toyota Racing

A twisty asphalt blast around a circuit that took eight days to construct is perhaps not for the purists but it brought the rally to the people, proving to be a hit with drivers and spectators. It even provided dramas as Esapekka Lappi was lucky after brushing a barrier that would catch out reigning WRC2 champion Andreas Mikkelsen. “It's like it should always be – such great crowds and atmosphere,” said Neuville. “Congratulations to the organisers for putting this in place for us and for all the spectators who came. It shows that it's possible to bring huge crowds to the WRC and we should look to do more.”

Neuville’s lead was short-lived as M-Sport came to the fore when the rally swapped the stadium superspecial for the more familiar mountain gravel roads synonymous with the Acropolis. The British squad, desperate to turnaround its poor form, was offered a beacon of light in the form of nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb and countryman Pierre-Louis Loubet, who rejoined the squad for Greece, while full-timer Adrien Fourmaux missed out as the team were unable to repair his damaged car in time following his Belgium crash last month.

"I think we are just not having the right things on the car at the moment. It feels like the car is not working in the low-speed sections and I think we are going to lose some time" Kalle Rovanpera

Three-time Acropolis winner Loeb, aided by advantageous road position, wasted little time getting up to speed on his return to the Greek gravel for the first time in 10 years, winning the three Friday morning stages to storm into the lead. That in itself set a new record for the rally legend as Loeb became the oldest driver to lead a WRC round at 48 years old, eclipsing the record previously set by 1979 world champion Bjorn Waldegard in 1991.

Dust was an issue for many, whether it was the loose surface gravel that needed sweeping or dust creating seriously reduced visibility. “We have no visibility,” said Neuville. “Suddenly it is fifth gear and full flat-out and you see nothing and you don’t know where you are. It is unbelievable. We ask for more minutes [between cars], we knew the sun was low, we knew there was dust, we knew there was no wind and nobody gives a s***.”

Organisers promptly reacted by increasing the intervals between cars to four minutes, which alleviated the problem. Friday was expected to be the toughest of the days, with crews forced to complete six stages without a mid-point service. However, all 12 Rally1 crews made it back to rally headquarters relatively unscathed.

Loubet starred over the early stages battling M-Sport team-mate and hero Loeb

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

It was M-Sport’s Craig Breen that suffered the worst as his barren run of good fortune continued, this time the Irishman picked up a puncture, costing him two minutes as he plummeted from fifth to outside of the top 10. “I seem to be getting it all [bad luck] at this point,” said Breen, who headed into the rally having crashed out of the previous three events.

That was the only blemish for M-Sport as the British team won all six stages. But it was relative WRC rookie Loubet that stunned many to emerge as Loeb’s nearest challenger. The impressive Loubet claimed his career first stage win on stage five by capitalising on rare Loeb overshoot. Incredibly, the 25-year-old not only took the stage win but led a WRC rally for the first time in the process. Loubet would then back up his pace by winning stage six to lead Toyota’s Lappi by 7.8s, with Loeb 8.3s off the top.

Loeb once again rolled back the years to wrestle the lead back from his team-mate after a push on the day’s final stage to end the day leading Loubet by 1.7s, with Lappi third ahead of the Hyundai trio of Neuville, Sordo and Tanak, who was without the use of his hybrid power. Gus Greensmith was seventh, ensuring three M-Sport Pumas were fighting at the front.

While M-Sport starred it was a difficult day for Toyota, highlighted the most by Kalle Rovanpera, who was languishing down in ninth, behind Evans and 1m07.8s back. The effects of road cleaning were more extreme than expected while the GR Yaris appeared to be missing the set-up sweet spot. “I think we are just not having the right things on the car at the moment,” said Rovanpera. “It feels like the car is not working in the low-speed sections and I think we are going to lose some time.”

There was no hiding the delight in the M-Sport camp as Loubet reflected on fighting with his childhood hero Loeb, who was equally impressed by his 2019 WRC2 champion countryman. “It is amazing to fight with him [Loeb],” said Loubet, who ended a nightmare 2021 with a broken hip in hospital after being hit by a car while crossing a road in Paris. “I was only just born when he was first competing and I was watching him [growing up]. It is something very nice.” Loeb added: “He has made a big step compared to what he has been doing before. It is looking good for him.”

The joy was to be replaced by a storyline befitting of a Greek tragedy as Loeb and Loubet's victory vanished in a chaotic start to Saturday. Loeb was the only driver able to keep up with a charging Tanak, who won the day’s first stage, but that was the last we would see of the Frenchman in Greece. An alternator failure sparked a hectic attempt at a roadside repair, but it was game over.

Disaster struck M-Sport on Saturday, as all of its frontrunners dropped out of contention

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

To make matters worse, Loubet picked up a puncture on the next stage costing him more than a minute, dropping him to seventh, having started the day in second. “It is deflating what has happened to us this weekend but we remain positive and we know we can do it, and we proved that yesterday, but today was not our day,” said M-Sport boss Richard Millener.

A struggling Rovanpera was also in the wars after side-swiping a tree on stage nine, which ripped the entire tailgate from his GR Yaris and damaged his rear brakes and suspension. It would cost the Finn, who could have secured the title in Greece, more than 16 minutes, offering up a golden opportunity for title rival Tanak. “Nothing special,” said Rovanpera when asked about the crash. “We just went wide and hit the rear on something. I was struggling this morning like yesterday. Going flat-out everywhere and still being slow is not easy.” 

If Friday had belonged to M-Sport then Saturday was very much a Hyundai affair. The squad capitalised as the Acropolis began to take its toll on the crews, but it wasn’t plain sailing for the sky-blue and orange cars. Extreme ambient temperatures into the 30s put a significant strain on the drivers, co-drivers and cars, with all three Hyundai crews suffering in keeping batteries sufficiently cooled.

Tanak continued to push and beat Neuville on the first of the final three stages. Eventually, Hyundai Motorsport president Sean Kim messaged his crews telling them to hold station. It wasn’t what Tanak wanted to hear

However, Neuville, Tanak and Sordo survived two loops of three stages, including the famous Pyrgos and Tarzan tests, to head a 1-2-3. The unlikely result was aided by the demise of Lappi, who had led Toyota’s charge in second before a fuel pressure problem saw the Finn grind to a halt on stage 12. His exit followed a retirement for Greensmith from sixth, due to a mechanical issue, while M-Sport privateer Jourdan Serderidis was out, stranded on a road section with a terminal hybrid problem. Keeping track of the leaderboard had become a difficult task as not one driver that started in the top 10 occupied the same position come the end of Saturday.

"It has been a great day for us,” said Neuville. “A bit of a hard one this afternoon with some trouble with the car, but we survived and we are here now. We had a warning for battery voltage, but it seems OK.”

Given Hyundai’s stranglehold of the rally, talk soon switched to team orders, with Neuville ahead of its best hope for the drivers’ championship in Tanak. The Estonian didn’t expect Neuville to move over for him while the latter was keen to stay ahead to score his first win of the season.

Neuville led going into the closing stages, but would team orders hand Tanak the win?

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

It created a tense and difficult situation for Hyundai on Sunday. Tanak, frustrated by a lack of a decision to help his title bid, continued to push and beat Neuville on the first of the final three stages, though he was still 25s behind. Eventually, Hyundai Motorsport president Sean Kim messaged his crews telling them to hold station. It wasn’t what Tanak wanted to hear.

Fired up for the final powerstage, Tanak won the stage to bag five extra points while Rovanpera, against the odds, snaffled four points to limit the damage to his championship lead, which is now 53 points. But at the front, Neuville was able to cruise to victory and head a historic yet controversial 1-2-3.

“It has been a tough season so far and to get the victory after a very difficult weekend in Belgium is a relief,” said Neuville, who crashed out of the lead in Belgium last month. “The most important thing is we have a 1-2-3 for the team - after all these years we finally got it and it's a historical moment for the brand and the team. Everybody has worked hard for this and it's a nice reward.”

There was also reward for M-Sport as the Acropolis’ attritional nature handed Loubet a deserved fourth to equal his best WRC result, after a mysterious engine issue forced Evans out before Sunday’s first stage. Breen ended up fifth, while Takamoto Katsuta was the top Toyota in sixth.

There is no denying this was a well-deserved victory for Hyundai, but its decision not to favour Tanak could cost them a chance at a drivers’ and manufacturers’ title double.

Will Hyundai live to regret not enforcing team orders to see Tanak on the top step of the podium?

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport